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Topic: Possible Missile Launch? (Read 2450 times)

I'm now ready to declare the "Skunk Bay Missile Crisis" done! The pilot of the Airlift NW helicopter just reported that his searchlight was retracted and pointing straight down. This would explain the unique light signature. It was fun and full of intrigue while it lasted.

Also... I now think the Coasties were just trying to get a selfie from my webcams....

Greg

Logged

Davis VP2 with VWS

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." -- Mark Twain

If the Gov were dumb enough to send something classified off near where hundreds of folks live, especially with the inherent danger of sideline damage, they really aren't worried about who could see it.

I'm anxious to find out what this really is, if we ever find out.

To think that Greg has attracted attention because of the weather web cam or security camera, then our military has a lot to worry about. You can't be at fault for taking pix from either public or your own property. The only reason they'd be worried if there were something nefarious going on, and they were going to do it again. A simpler thing would be to turn off all the power in the area just before the next launch.

Dale,You sure can get in hot water just innocently snapping pictures of a Navy base.I was intercepted while cruising the Corpus Christi channel in front of (the former) Naval Station Ingleside *. As I had glanced towards the Naval Base while traversing the wide entrance, I noticed large signs with 'prohibited activities' posted, but thought little of it. A passenger (niece) on my powerboat sitting forward, unbeknownst to me, began snapping pictures; as I was busy navigating the transition from southbound in the GICW channel to westbound in the CC channel. As we passed across the large entrance to the Ingleside Mine Sweeper Base, the pier side security detail noticed this picture taking (from about a mile away). They tried to hail me on the VHF, which I couldn't hear over the engine noise, and then dispatched an armed patrol boat to intercept. This boat swung in off my starboard quarter and hailed me to halt, which I did (at idle speed to maintain steerageway in the wind and current). They then came adjacent to the quarter and interrogated me about 'taking forbidden pictures', which I denied since I had no idea what niece had been doing. They were not amused. Finally, as word got around the crew, niece fessed up; and after looking over her camera, they allowed us to proceed down to Corpus.

*Naval Station Ingleside was a huge boondoggle in an improbable location for minesweeping. It cost taxpayers many billion$ of dollars to build from scratch (took years), equip and man. It was active status for about a decade and a half, then was BRAC'ed. Then it was sold off in pieces to oil companies for about $98 million total, losing about 5-10-20 billion dollar$ in value. An almost complete waste of tax money.

Well, I quoted information that is commonly circulated by and for photographers.

In your instance, the PHOTOGRAPHY PROHIBITED sign applied the moment you entered those waters, but likely would not have been challenged if you were outside that sign. It's sort of like the guys sneaking onto the base near China Lake to photograph the stealth fighter when it was being tested. The government had bought up some farms, the story goes, to give a bigger buffer, and the guys trying to get the shots not only knew it, but went on land that was marked as a government reserve, which does not qualify as public space.

When we visited the Trinity site on the White Sands test range some very stern looking chaps informed us that until we arrived at Trinity that photography was forbidden, and I believed them since we were on a test range, government reserve, etc. Once we got there (and there wasn't a hell of a lot to take pictures of as we drove there) we saw signs and the guys with Geiger counters told us we were free to take pictures inside the fence, but if we drove to the McDonald site we'd not be allowed.

When the B1 was revealed for the first pull out, Jane's Aircraft (I believe) hired a guy in a 172 to fly over during the speeches and got some pix from above which showed far more than they figured anyone could see from the bleachers. Indeed, it was a major give away, but there apparently was no permanent or temporary no fly zone (rumor had it that a screw up made them forget to have the FAA declare it off limits to private aircraft) and they got some interesting pictures.

Anyway, there are a lot of places that get fenced off to prevent too much photography. Oh, Groton where the subs are built was another spot my brother in law found across the bay which was open for viewing by interested folks, but it was far away enough to be pretty useless from the angle.

Interesting story, one gets a bit weirded out when the boat comes up and hails you to pull over.

Well, I quoted information that is commonly circulated by and for photographers.

In your instance, the PHOTOGRAPHY PROHIBITED sign applied the moment you entered those waters, but likely would not have been challenged if you were outside that sign. It's sort of like the guys sneaking onto the base near China Lake to photograph the stealth fighter when it was being tested. ...

Well, pretty sure that if I had actually entered "those waters" things would have been somewhat worse. Maybe they treat water a little different than land. The ROW regs/rules changed a while back, with a 300 yard (IIRC) vessel standoff from military and commercial shipping now enforced in all/most waters. If I'm passing a Navy or CG vessel in a channel I always radio request permission to overtake, just to be sure of intent. Offshore, just stay way clear.

They stated that taking pictures of NS Ingleside from 'anywhere' was verboten. I think that's how the sign was worded too. I didn't feel like arguing with them. Seems pretty well a practically unenforceable rule given the location and vessel traffic, but they have to go through the motions, and catch a few fish.It's a constrained channel in front of the NS there, a spoil island opposite, with a major crossing just east with the GICW. They basically made a harbor with some jetties sticking out. I think part of the open NS 'entrance' way appears to the left on that picture. There's a mapping link at the Wiki link given, map sucks but the satellite view is awesome.

To add some closure to "Skunk Bay Missile Crisis" I thought I'd share this. I did a quick review of how it went down for me on my "blog". At the end of it I have a link to Professor Cliff Mass's blog that gives a detailed description of how this all came down from a scientific perspective with a little humor.....